Skip to main content

Ernest Caldwell

School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Law, Faculty Member

Followers

279

Following

138

Public Views

Ernest Caldwell (康佩理) is a historian specialising in early and medieval Chinese law. Ernest joined SOAS in 2012 as Lecturer in Chinese Law. In 2020, he transferred to the School of East Asian Languages and Cultures and currently serves as Senior Lecturer in Chinese Studies. Ernest obtained a BA in Asian History, an MA in Premodern Chinese Literature, and an LLM in Contemporary Asian Legal Studies. He completed his PhD at the University of Chicago after studying Chinese palaeography, excavated manuscript culture, and early Chinese legal history. His dissertation examining the linguistic features of legal statutes in early imperial Chinese excavated manuscripts formed the basis of his first book Writing Chinese Laws: The form and function of legal statutes found in the Qin Shuihudi corpus (Routledge 2018).

In addition to his work on imperial Chinese law, Ernest has also published extensively on the modern legal histories of China and Taiwan. He is particularly interested in histories of constitutional change and in legislative aspects of transitional justice in Taiwan. In 2019, the Washington International Law Journal published a special issue of responses to Ernest’s 2018 article “Transitional Justice Legislation in Taiwan Before and During the Tsai Administration”.

Ernest’s research has appeared in a variety of journals, including Early China, Chicago-Kent Law Review, Washington Journal of International Law, and Law and History Review, as well as several contributions to edited volumes.
Address: School of Law
School of Oriental and African Studies
Thornhaugh Street / Russell Square
London
WC1H 0XG
United Kingdom

less

InterestsView All (29)

Uploads

Modern China and Taiwan by Ernest Caldwell

"Preface: Promoting Taiwan's Transitional Justice Experience" Washington International Law Journal 28.3 (2019)

Washington International Law Journal, 2019

The Control Yuan and Human Rights in Taiwan: Towards the Development of a National Human Rights Institution

This chapter contributes to the growing literature on international human rights and National Hum... more This chapter contributes to the growing literature on international human rights and National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) in Taiwan. Despite decades of debate, Taiwan has never established a NHRI that complies with international human rights norms. At present, Taiwan is confronted with three viable options: the creation of an independent NHRI, the creation of a national commission under the Office of the President, or the reform of the Control Yuan into a NHRI. In this chapter, I focus on the latter option, the use of the Control Yuan as a NHRI. Specfically, I consider the historical relationship of the Control Yuan to human rights in Taiwan, and further consider the socio-legal, as well as constitutional, implications of reforming this branch of government into a NHRI that complies with international human rights norms.

TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE LEGISLATION IN TAIWAN BEFORE AND DURING THE TSAI ADMINISTRATION

The Republic of China on Taiwan (Taiwan) successfully, and peacefully, transitioned from authorit... more The Republic of China on Taiwan (Taiwan) successfully, and peacefully, transitioned from authoritarian one-party rule into a constitutional democracy in the early 1990s. Yet, due to the island's complex international status and fraught relationship with China, as well as a rather conservative government approach to post-authoritarian discourse on past human rights violations, there has been relatively little scholarly interest in Anglophone academia on Taiwanese transitional justice issues. This dearth of extant analysis is unfortunate since the study of Taiwan offers important insights into the impact of localized post-transition political dynamics on governmental responses to past human rights abuses. This Article seeks to deepen our understanding of East Asian transitional justice by examining the influence of post-democratization local conditions on the scope and language of transitional justice legislation during two phases of Taiwan's legislative history. The first period runs from the initial steps towards democratization in 1987 until 2016. During this time the Chinese Nationalist Party, that governed the former authoritarian regime, continued to dominate the Taiwanese government, and in particular, retained its majority in the Legislative Yuan. The second period runs from January 2016 to the present. During this second period, the Democratic Progressive Party managed to secure both the presidency and a legislative majority and introduce new legislation to expand the scope of transitional justice.

'Widening the Constitutional Gap in China and Taiwan: History, Reform, and the Transformation of the Control Yuan' University of Illinois Law Review, Vol. 2017, no. 2 (2017): 739-766

"Chinese Constitutionalism: Five-Power Constitution" in Max Planck Encyclopedia of Comparative Constitutional Law (2017)

Approaches to Asian Constitutionalism--Symposium Issue of the Chicago-Kent Law Review, Vol. 88, no. 1 (2012): 1-284

'Horizontal Rights and Chinese Constitutionalism: Judicialization Through Labor Disputes' Chicago-Kent Law Review 88.1 (2012): 63-91

Chicago-Kent Law Review 88.1, 2012

'Introduction: Methodological Approaches to Asian Constitutionalism' Chicago-Kent Law Review 88.1 (2012): 3-10

(with Chang Xiangqun, Athena Leoussi, and Sam Whimster) guest editors. "Max Weber and China: Culture, Law, and Capitalism, Part 2" Max Weber Studies Vol. 14, No. 2 (2014)

(with Chang Xiangqun, Athena Leoussi, and Sam Whimster) guest editors. "Max Weber and China: Culture, Law, and Capitalism, Part 1" Max Weber Studies Vol. 14, No. 1 (2014)

(with Chang Xiangqun, Athena Leoussi, and Sam Whimster) "Editorial on Max Weber and China: Culture, Capitalism, and Law" Max Weber Studies 14.2 (2014): 137-143

Visualising Constitutionalism in China

Law and Development: Thinking into | about Practice, 2014

Review of Wong Yun-Bor. Autonomy and Protection of Fundamental Rights in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

Asian Journal of International Law, 2011

Review of Mike McConville and Eva Pils eds., Comparative Perspectives on Criminal Justice in China

China Quarterly, 2014

Pre-Modern China by Ernest Caldwell

Book: Writing Chinese Laws: The Form and Function of Legal Statutes Found in the Qin Shuihudi Corpus (Routledge 2018)

The legal institutions of the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–207 BCE) have been vilified by history... more The legal institutions of the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–207 BCE) have been vilified by history as harsh and draconian. Yet ironically, many Qin institutional features, such as written statutory law, were readily adopted by subsequent dynasties as the primary means for maintaining administrative and social control. This book utilizes both traditional texts and archeologically excavated materials to explore how these influential Qin legal institutions developed. First, it investigates the socio-political conditions which led to the production of law in written form. It then goes on to consider how the intended function of written law influenced the linguistic composition of legal statutes, as well as their physical construction. Using a function and form approach, it specifically analyses the Shuihudi legal corpus. However, unlike many previous studies of Chinese legal manuscripts, which have focused on codicological issues of transcription and translation, this book considers the linguistic aspects of these manuscripts and thus their importance for understanding the development of early Chinese legal thought. Writing Chinese Laws will be useful to students and scholars of Chinese Studies, as well as Asian law and history more generally.

'Social Change and Written Law in Early Chinese Legal Thought' Law and History Review Vol. 32, no. 1 (2014): 1-30

Law and History Review 32.01, Feb 2014

What societal factors prompt the shift from legal practices based upon oral or customary law to t... more What societal factors prompt the shift from legal practices based upon oral or customary law to the development of new legal institutions predicated upon bodies of written law? Such a question has guided the research of many historians of western civilization attempting to understand the appearance of written law within a given society, or to explain institutional differences between chronologically and geographically contiguous legal traditions. The same question concerns scholars of Chinese law as well. In this article, I examine the development of early Chinese theories of written law, focusing particularly on the influence of socio-political change on theories of writing and law.

"Opportune Moments in Early Chinese Military Thought: The concept of ji 機 in the Warring States Period Manuscript Cao Mie's Battle Array" in Roy and Lorge eds. Chinese and Indian Warfare--From the Classical Age to 1870. New York: Routledge, 2015.

'Promoting Action in Warring States Political Philosophy: A First Look at the Chu Manuscript Cao Mie's Battle Array' Early China 37 (2014): 259-289.

Early China 37, 2014

Recent excavations of Chinese bamboo manuscripts have so far yielded a wealth of information abou... more

Talks by Ernest Caldwell

Rethinking the Pathways for Constitutional Development in China

Con(text)ualising Constitutionality in Modern China: The Language of Constitutional Rights in Lower and Intermediate Court Decisions

This paper examines the socio-linguistic features of a long neglected collection of Chinese court... more This paper examines the socio-linguistic features of a long neglected collection of Chinese court cases involving civil disputes, wherein the presiding judges actively engaged in constitutional interpretation and openly invoked and enforced horizontally orientated socio-economic rights to prosecute civil issues ranging from exploitative labour practices to identity theft. Because constitutional provisions are technically non-judiciable, the existence of these court cases is surprising. A detailed linguistic analysis of these cases reveals how judges expand their competency over constitutionally enshrined rights by manipulating the very language of the constitution, and as a result, produce a tenuous and quasi-unconstitutional relationship between the text of the constitution and the judiciary. This hybrid socio-legal-linguistic approach sheds new light upon contemporary indigenous Chinese articulations of ‘constitutionalism’, and also illustrates specific categories of constitutional issues that could successfully find increased representation within Chinese courtrooms.

"Preface: Promoting Taiwan's Transitional Justice Experience" Washington International Law Journal 28.3 (2019)

Washington International Law Journal, 2019

The Control Yuan and Human Rights in Taiwan: Towards the Development of a National Human Rights Institution

This chapter contributes to the growing literature on international human rights and National Hum... more This chapter contributes to the growing literature on international human rights and National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) in Taiwan. Despite decades of debate, Taiwan has never established a NHRI that complies with international human rights norms. At present, Taiwan is confronted with three viable options: the creation of an independent NHRI, the creation of a national commission under the Office of the President, or the reform of the Control Yuan into a NHRI. In this chapter, I focus on the latter option, the use of the Control Yuan as a NHRI. Specfically, I consider the historical relationship of the Control Yuan to human rights in Taiwan, and further consider the socio-legal, as well as constitutional, implications of reforming this branch of government into a NHRI that complies with international human rights norms.

TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE LEGISLATION IN TAIWAN BEFORE AND DURING THE TSAI ADMINISTRATION

The Republic of China on Taiwan (Taiwan) successfully, and peacefully, transitioned from authorit... more The Republic of China on Taiwan (Taiwan) successfully, and peacefully, transitioned from authoritarian one-party rule into a constitutional democracy in the early 1990s. Yet, due to the island's complex international status and fraught relationship with China, as well as a rather conservative government approach to post-authoritarian discourse on past human rights violations, there has been relatively little scholarly interest in Anglophone academia on Taiwanese transitional justice issues. This dearth of extant analysis is unfortunate since the study of Taiwan offers important insights into the impact of localized post-transition political dynamics on governmental responses to past human rights abuses. This Article seeks to deepen our understanding of East Asian transitional justice by examining the influence of post-democratization local conditions on the scope and language of transitional justice legislation during two phases of Taiwan's legislative history. The first period runs from the initial steps towards democratization in 1987 until 2016. During this time the Chinese Nationalist Party, that governed the former authoritarian regime, continued to dominate the Taiwanese government, and in particular, retained its majority in the Legislative Yuan. The second period runs from January 2016 to the present. During this second period, the Democratic Progressive Party managed to secure both the presidency and a legislative majority and introduce new legislation to expand the scope of transitional justice.

'Widening the Constitutional Gap in China and Taiwan: History, Reform, and the Transformation of the Control Yuan' University of Illinois Law Review, Vol. 2017, no. 2 (2017): 739-766

"Chinese Constitutionalism: Five-Power Constitution" in Max Planck Encyclopedia of Comparative Constitutional Law (2017)

Approaches to Asian Constitutionalism--Symposium Issue of the Chicago-Kent Law Review, Vol. 88, no. 1 (2012): 1-284

'Horizontal Rights and Chinese Constitutionalism: Judicialization Through Labor Disputes' Chicago-Kent Law Review 88.1 (2012): 63-91

Chicago-Kent Law Review 88.1, 2012

'Introduction: Methodological Approaches to Asian Constitutionalism' Chicago-Kent Law Review 88.1 (2012): 3-10

(with Chang Xiangqun, Athena Leoussi, and Sam Whimster) guest editors. "Max Weber and China: Culture, Law, and Capitalism, Part 2" Max Weber Studies Vol. 14, No. 2 (2014)

(with Chang Xiangqun, Athena Leoussi, and Sam Whimster) guest editors. "Max Weber and China: Culture, Law, and Capitalism, Part 1" Max Weber Studies Vol. 14, No. 1 (2014)

(with Chang Xiangqun, Athena Leoussi, and Sam Whimster) "Editorial on Max Weber and China: Culture, Capitalism, and Law" Max Weber Studies 14.2 (2014): 137-143

Visualising Constitutionalism in China

Law and Development: Thinking into | about Practice, 2014

Review of Wong Yun-Bor. Autonomy and Protection of Fundamental Rights in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

Asian Journal of International Law, 2011

Review of Mike McConville and Eva Pils eds., Comparative Perspectives on Criminal Justice in China

China Quarterly, 2014

Book: Writing Chinese Laws: The Form and Function of Legal Statutes Found in the Qin Shuihudi Corpus (Routledge 2018)

The legal institutions of the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–207 BCE) have been vilified by history... more The legal institutions of the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–207 BCE) have been vilified by history as harsh and draconian. Yet ironically, many Qin institutional features, such as written statutory law, were readily adopted by subsequent dynasties as the primary means for maintaining administrative and social control. This book utilizes both traditional texts and archeologically excavated materials to explore how these influential Qin legal institutions developed. First, it investigates the socio-political conditions which led to the production of law in written form. It then goes on to consider how the intended function of written law influenced the linguistic composition of legal statutes, as well as their physical construction. Using a function and form approach, it specifically analyses the Shuihudi legal corpus. However, unlike many previous studies of Chinese legal manuscripts, which have focused on codicological issues of transcription and translation, this book considers the linguistic aspects of these manuscripts and thus their importance for understanding the development of early Chinese legal thought. Writing Chinese Laws will be useful to students and scholars of Chinese Studies, as well as Asian law and history more generally.

'Social Change and Written Law in Early Chinese Legal Thought' Law and History Review Vol. 32, no. 1 (2014): 1-30

Law and History Review 32.01, Feb 2014

What societal factors prompt the shift from legal practices based upon oral or customary law to t... more What societal factors prompt the shift from legal practices based upon oral or customary law to the development of new legal institutions predicated upon bodies of written law? Such a question has guided the research of many historians of western civilization attempting to understand the appearance of written law within a given society, or to explain institutional differences between chronologically and geographically contiguous legal traditions. The same question concerns scholars of Chinese law as well. In this article, I examine the development of early Chinese theories of written law, focusing particularly on the influence of socio-political change on theories of writing and law.

"Opportune Moments in Early Chinese Military Thought: The concept of ji 機 in the Warring States Period Manuscript Cao Mie's Battle Array" in Roy and Lorge eds. Chinese and Indian Warfare--From the Classical Age to 1870. New York: Routledge, 2015.

'Promoting Action in Warring States Political Philosophy: A First Look at the Chu Manuscript Cao Mie's Battle Array' Early China 37 (2014): 259-289.

Early China 37, 2014

Recent excavations of Chinese bamboo manuscripts have so far yielded a wealth of information abou... more

Rethinking the Pathways for Constitutional Development in China

Con(text)ualising Constitutionality in Modern China: The Language of Constitutional Rights in Lower and Intermediate Court Decisions

This paper examines the socio-linguistic features of a long neglected collection of Chinese court... more This paper examines the socio-linguistic features of a long neglected collection of Chinese court cases involving civil disputes, wherein the presiding judges actively engaged in constitutional interpretation and openly invoked and enforced horizontally orientated socio-economic rights to prosecute civil issues ranging from exploitative labour practices to identity theft. Because constitutional provisions are technically non-judiciable, the existence of these court cases is surprising. A detailed linguistic analysis of these cases reveals how judges expand their competency over constitutionally enshrined rights by manipulating the very language of the constitution, and as a result, produce a tenuous and quasi-unconstitutional relationship between the text of the constitution and the judiciary. This hybrid socio-legal-linguistic approach sheds new light upon contemporary indigenous Chinese articulations of ‘constitutionalism’, and also illustrates specific categories of constitutional issues that could successfully find increased representation within Chinese courtrooms.

New Perspectives on Socio-Legal Change: Contributions from Early Chinese Legal History

Contextualising Constitutional Litigation in Modern China: Horizontal Effect and ‘Benign Violation of the Constitution’ in Lower Courts

Courting Constitutionality in Modern China: Constitutional Rights and Indirect Effect in Lower Court Judgements